Page 15 of Long Live the King

Hayley patted his arm. “Not long ago, you aren’t soft, Lochie is just teasing to get his way.”

Magnus said, “Aye, this is a pattern with ye, Lochinvar, tae get what ye want ye abuse us — dost ye want tae sit at the table with the men and enjoy a fine meal or dost ye want tae sit at the children’s table with the bairns?”

“I want tae sit with the men. I am verra sorry, Fraoch, ye arna soft, ye could probably fight me without becomin’ too winded. I would win, but then again I am much younger than ye, tis not yer softness but yer age.”

Magnus chuckled. “Has this made it better, Fraoch?”

“Aye, that was a wonderful apology from a young lad, barely auld enough tae wipe his own arse.”

Magnus chuckled more, then asked, “By the succession ye mean the list of the kings of Riaghalbane, not of Scotland?”

“Aye, why...?”

“Because lately I wonder if we are goin’ tae see m’name appear on the list of Scottish kings.”

Fraoch said, “I daena ever think it could be so easy.”

Lochie said, “I will start with the list of Riaghalbane kings.”

Magnus said, “I think Kaitlyn can get it for ye, right, mo reul-iuil?”

“Got it right here.” I pulled my phone from my pocket, opened my note app and the document,Kings. I placed my phone on the table in front of Lochie.

Everyone leaned in.

I explained, “So we have Normond, then his son, then Artair’s father, then Artair, then... couple more, then Magnus, but notice this is the official record. This is the one that is set. We have probably overwritten a lot of history, but we don’t have that; it’s lost to time?—”

Lochie said, “So this is the real, true history.”

“Yes.”

He asked, “And Magnus is a direct descendant, right?”

“Aye, I am direct.”

Lochie asked, “But what of all the arena battles?”

I said, “There are probably a lot of those that were overwritten but the ones we know about we have on another list. I have a copy of it in my office.”

I picked up the phone. “It has more kings, regents, and a couple of interim managers, a usurper or two — during Magnus’s reign there have been many arena battles, Samuel took the throne for a hot minute, then there were Fraoch’s brothers, and...”

Lochie said, “This is what I was thinkin’ on, none of this is on the main list, so I am ponderin’ what else has been omitted and do we ken?”

Fraoch said, “Usurpers daena get tae stay on the official record or it looks like we are weak. I am usin’ the ‘we’, that means the royal we.”

Hayley laughed. “I’m impressed you used it correctly.”

Lochie said, “So ye will rewrite history just so ye daena hae some men upon the list?”

Magnus said, “Aye, because they are unimportant. Tae the victor go the spoils.”

Fraoch said, “If they couldna hold their throne, they daena get the honor of our pen writin’ their names upon our list.”

Quentin said, “This means there’s a lot of turbulence we’re overlooking.”

Magnus said, “Aye, or ye could think on it this way — we arna overlooking it, there is just an official list and then there are the footnotes. There are many more footnotes because of overthrow and battle, a few years here and there, tis a mess. There is a long history, whole books hae been written about it.”

I said, “I’ve got a few of the official history books upstairs too...”

---